A Mother's Wisdom
by Angelsrm
Summary: Harry marries Ginny, but realizes later that he wasn't truly in love with her. In his search of freedom, he finds something in his family vaults to help save him from a love-less marriage. Going back in time fic. Harmony.
1. Chapter 1: A Very Important Prologue

Author's Note: My apologizes to anyone reading my other story, but I have like 2 chapters written, and they will be updated soon. The reason I am starting a new story is because I wrote this quite a while ago, and decided that since I finally posted 1 story, that I might as well post this as well. I don't know when I'll update this one (Harry's Sorrow is still my main story and more likely to get updated), but I wanted to get it out there! :)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, that honor goes to J.K. Rowling! :) I am just using her characters for my own purposes...

Prologue: The end of the war

Harry finished Voldemort off, freeing himself, he managed to think to himself about how he could finally marry the lady he loved, Ginevra Weasley. He thought about her, her fiery red hair, and just as fiery temper to match, as well as how good she looked. So he rushed around the battlefield, ignoring all others that he saw, including, Ronald Weasley, as he lay dying. When he found her, she was unconscious because she had lost a lot of blood, a fact seen by the fact that she was missing one of her arms. What was surprising, was that she was actually close to the by then dead body of his best friend, Ron, because as he had rushed around, he had missed her, because she wasn't close enough at that point, and so, in the time in between, Ron had passed, and Ginny had finally gotten closer, and then passed out. As he cradled her form in his arms, and started running up to the hospital wing, where he hoped to find Madam Pomphrey ready for some (more) work. And as he ran, he thought about how to propose, because nothing else, but Ginny and his freedom were on his mind, so he ignored his best friend's death and the fact that he hadn't seen his other best friend (Hermione), instead, he focused on his love. Years later he would look back on this moment as the beginning of the end (before the new beginning), and as one of the stupidest times in his entire life.

2 Years after the War Ended

Harry woke once again, from the nightmare of his friends and family turning into a bloody mess at his hands. He sat up in the empty bed, wishing that the dreams would stop. He got up, and looked at the clock on his bedside table, and seeing that it was 6:30, realized that Ginny had been gone for at least ½ an hour. He got up, knowing it was futile to try and return to sleep. Ever since defeating the dark lord 2 years ago, and marrying Ginny a year and a half ago, he had been unable to get a good night's rest. He had been going through the auror program, and today, would be his first day as an auror, and not an auror trainee, but Harry no longer cared. He was simply doing what the world wanted of him. That day on the battlefield, thinking of Ginny and his freedom, well 1/2 of his thoughts had come true. He had gotten Ginny, but somewhere between here and there, his freedom had been sapped. Leaving him following the wizarding world's expectations of him.

Ginny worked as Fred and George's assistant manager, because they wanted to be able to continue creating new prank items, and so, had convinced Ginny to work the store for them. The store opened at 7, so most days, Ginny left at 6, to get the store ready for opening. He went back to thinking about his own job, and how he had come to be where he was. He had signed up, hoping to be able to move on, but after a year, he had come to realize, that all it really did was bring back bad memories of the war. After he recognized this, his mind decided to look at other choices he had made at the end of the war. It was strange, taking his mind back to the day he finished off Voldemort, because whenever he did, it was fuzzy, and all he could seem to think about, was his Ginny. He had wanted children, but whenever he brought it up to Ginny, she always had some sort of reservation to becoming pregnant. So, he was stuck, and had finally been able to see past the old man's manipulations, and past the love potion that he had been put under, and realized it was not Ginny that he loved. He also knew that no matter how much he might want to switch jobs, he would not be able to do so.

He seemed stuck, because, there was no real way for him to leave his current life, divorce isn't a thing in the wizarding world, and he knew it. After some major thought, he decided to spend a bit of time in the vaults that he heard he had, from his parents. He wanted to see if he could learn any more about his parents. One day, after visiting his vaults, and finding his father's journal, and reading some of it, he understood that Potter's, being the generally brash Gryffindors that they were, generally fell in love with the smartest witch of their age. It didn't always happen, but was more likely, it was just part of the Potter genes, that they were brash and courageous, and they liked to pick people who would compliment them. Such as smart, but also courageous ladies who would help them greatly in keeping the Potter estates working just as smoothly. So, he went to go and visit Hermione, and finally, with the love potion gone, it hit him that Hermione was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life. So, he went on with his life, without telling anyone, hoping without hope, to find something, somewhere to allow him to be with his real love. One day, while down in the vaults, before a dinner with Hermione, he finally stumbled across what he knew he would need. On one of the bookshelves, he had found his mother's book with all of her thoughts, and ritual type things, she had worked in the department of mysteries before becoming pregnant. This book showed all of her work from that time, she had hidden it up on top, because she hoped that it would keep it, and anyone who might find it safe from the half completed research and rituals inside. One of the rituals allowed a person to send up to 4 people's minds back to the past, into their bodies, however young or old that body might be. He quickly grabbed the book, and rushed out of his vault, and straight over to Hermione's house. Once there, he knocked on the door, knowing he was an hour early for dinner. She quickly opened the door, she let him in, and he explained everything, including his feelings, to her.

After explaining, he was surprised to hear Hermione shout, "Yes!" Before calming down some, and explaining, that unlike Harry, her love potion had worn off the day of the final battle, when Ron had died. So she went on to tell Harry how she had harbored her feelings for Harry for years, hoping to find someone to replace him in her life.

Then Harry explained what he had found in his vault, about the ritual. So they went out and got all the supplies they would need. Once they got back to her house, they went inside, and got the ritual space all set up, but as they went to start it, someone knocked on the door. Hermione went to open the door, and Harry followed behind, and was startled to see Ginny behind the door.

Ginny said, "Harry, may I talk to you for a minute?"

Harry, despite everything, said, "Sure, Hermione, I'll be back in a moment, and then we may start dinner" trying to hide the real thing they were doing. Hermione nodded her head and went inside to reread the ritual and ensure that it was set and ready to do exactly what they wanted it to do. While there, she changed a couple of things to send them to a very specific moment in time. Meanwhile, outside, Harry had already asked, "So, Ginny, what are you doing here, you know this is me and Hermione's dinner night and about the only time I get to see her anymore."

Ginny simply looked at him, and stated, "Harry, why don't you come home with me, and reschedule the dinner for some other night?" Ginny had finally noticed that Harry didn't seem as loving, and was worried he was cheating on her, and wanted to re-douse him with the love potion.

Harry simply shook his head before answering, "Ginny, I can't do that, Hermione told me she worked on this dinner all day, you know she has been working on her cooking skills recently, and she was going to have me invite you over soon, to see how well her cooking stacked up against your mothers."

Ginny, despite being upset, decided simply to respond with, "Then may I come in and eat with you?" She really didn't want to allow Harry to be alone with another girl before she was able to make sure that Harry still "loved" her as much as ever.

Harry, was starting to become frustrated, but simply stated, "She only bought enough to make dinner for two tonight, I'll see you later, but I am going to eat before the food gets cold." And with that, Ginny stomped down the driveway, turned with a snap and was gone. Harry went back inside, hugged Hermione, and went to stand in one of the circles while Hermione stood in another and together they chanted the ritual words, sending them back 18 years, to the week before the fateful Halloween night in 1981.

October 24, 1981

As Harry came to, in a baby's body, in a crib, he was overjoyed to see that it worked, and as his mother walked in, he started crying much to the shock of the both of them. Lily, quickly picked him up, and started to leave the room, but was shocked, again, when Harry decided to speak up. He had thought about this and had decided that he was going to need to tell his mother what had happened. He said, "Mum" and she was overjoyed that he had said his first word, but that wasn't all, because Harry hadn't finished speaking. So he continued on with, "I need to talk to you about something very important for our family's safety." It took all of her willpower not to fall over, or faint, and the only reason that she even tried was because Harry was in that moment, in her arms. So instead, she sat down in the rocking chair that was in the corner of the nursery and started thinking about how it must be a dream, when Harry spoke up again. He declared, "In a week, Voldemort will come and try to kill me (and you and dad by default), but you and dad will stand up to him, forcing him to kill both of you. This will leave me open to all of Dumbledore's manipulations, including where I will end up living, and who I will love and then eventually marry." That finally shocked Lily enough that she looked like she might respond finally, so Harry quickly finished in a mumbled rush, "SoIkindofusedaritualyoumadetosendmymindbacktotodayinmycurrentbodysoastostopVoldemortfromeverdoingsuchahorriblethingashewillinthefuture, ,andIwillassumethatwewillknowifanythingelsehappenedsoonish."

All Lily could manage at that point, through the shock of her son speaking, and then speaking like an adult, and then laying some big shocking truths on her, was a "What, why'd you mumble? Wait, THAT ritual?!"

Author's Note: For anyone who couldn't read the mushed writing, or isn't sure if they got it right, it says, "So I kind of used a ritual you made to send my mind back to today in my current body so as to stop Voldemort from ever doing such a horrible thing as he will in the future, and my friend Hermione came with me to help. She should be with her parents in her younger body as well, and I will assume that we will know if anything else happened soonish."


	2. Chapter 2: The Beginning

AN: Sorry to all my readers, and a double sorry to readers of Harry's Sorrow, it will be updated while it is still December! I promise! Now this is a real chapter for you all! Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoy! :) (Still un-beta'd, I'm trying to change that) And yes, this chapter is probably at least somewhat smaller than the first, but this is more of my usual chapter length, so you should get use to this length for chapters, because I'm not usually one for long winded chapters. I'm just usually much better at keeping my stories updated, but end of semester sucks, and I still have finals this week to contend with. :(

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Harry Potter, much as I might want to, it belongs to JK Rowling, who has the brilliant mind that came up with the idea and original story for Harry Potter! :)

Harry and his mother talked for hours the next day while James relaxed a bit and flew in the family's enclosed little backyard. Harry used the time to explain about the future he came from and why he had eventually felt he had no better choice but to use the ritual to come back in time. Despite everything, Lily understood what happened, and they agreed to keep everything from the rash and brash James so as to prevent him from doing anything stupid. So they decided to plan ahead to prevent the worst, and to get ahead of Dumbledore's schemes and Voldemort's evil plans.

A Week Later

Lily and Harry worked hard all week, trying to prevent the same catastrophes from occurring once more. Lily told James the bare minimum of what he needed to know to get him on board the plan. He accepted his part, and accepted that he might not be there to see Harry grow up. So he worked for the ½ week that he got, to make some things for Harry to remember him by, and to get his affairs in order. Lily was doing the same, just in case, but she hoped that she wouldn't need them. Now it was Halloween, and the family was up in the nursery, while the scene that Harry remembered from the first time he lived this night (secretly it really was his memory, not that Lily told James that). Lily had set up a ritual that would use the willing sacrifice in the face of mortal danger, and imminent death to reflect any 1 curse from the person that the mark was placed on. Then she walked over to little Harry, and in the same place as his "curse scar" had been, she placed the mark of the ritual, a lightning bolt. James was in the rocking chair, polyjuiced as Lily, and once Lily finished the ritual preparations, she was disillusioned and then she crouched behind the crib. She was in charge of back up scrambling, and shielding the 2 survivors from the falling debris after the A.K. attempt.

They heard spell fire from downstairs and then Voldemort was in the room with them. He offered to allow Lily to live, if she would just step aside, but James had been coached too well, and knew he had to willing allow himself to take the blast to try to save Harry. So Voldemort hit him with a spell, and then turned his wand onto Harry. Once again, the ritual worked, leaving Harry with a new scar and no Voldemort, for now at least. Lily acted quickly, shielding them, and then grabbing Harry and running out of the house as soon as possible. Tears streamed down both faces as they fled the ruined house.

Meanwhile, up in the nursery, something stirred.

When Harry and Lily made it to their safe house, just 2 houses down from Hermione's house (bought secretly by Lily, with Harry's input), Lily set Harry down on the couch, and then flopped onto it herself. She sat there quietly for a good hour at least, just questioning choices that were made and why James had had to die. Harry just sat, sad himself for the fact that he would never truly know his father. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, so Lily dried her eyes, and opened the door. Emma Granger and Hermione were outside the door, both already in the loop. Dan Granger was going to be brought into the loop once the kids were both 5 years of age. Hermione toddled in, and straight over to Harry on the couch, and hugged him. She congratulated him on keeping his mother alive, and consoled him over being forced to allow his father to die regardless. Emma just took Lily into the kitchen, and made her some tea, allowing her to grieve in the company of a friend.

What none of them knew was that James hadn't died, but he had been injured severely, enough to make him forget his family, and name. His injuries also messed with his system enough that some of the polyjuice potion continued to affect him, making him look like a red haired, slightly feminine version of himself. Sirius, who found him knew of course, but decided not to tell, because he thought that Lily and Harry had died, and didn't want James to have to live with that. So he simply told him that he was a good friend of James (and he did tell him his first name, just not his last name), and that that was all that he could remember. James White (He wanted to thank Sirius, but didn't remember him well enough to say he was a brother and pick up Sirius' last name) went on to be the transfiguration professor at Hogwarts, and the remaining Potters and the Grangers didn't get the magical papers, so no one ever realized what had happened.


End file.
